When Wimberly Briggs didn't answer her cell phone, her parents knew something was wrong.

Someone had run a stop sign in Rosewood, smashing into Wimberly's Honda Accord. She was unconscious with massive internal injuries, numerous broken bones and brain trauma. An ambulance sped her to the Level I trauma center at Palmetto Health Richland.

"I am convinced that had we not lived in a community with a trauma center, she would not be alive today," said her father, Mike Briggs.

Legislation to be introduced today in the S.C. House and Senate aims to provide intensive care for the trauma centers that treat the state's most critically injured patients.

These centers lose money because so many of their patients -- about 23 percent -- can't pay for their costly, life-saving treatment.

In some regions of the country, trauma centers have closed.

"Unless something is done, this whole system will collapse, and if you get injured, there may be no place that will take you," said Dr. Richard Bell, chairman of the USC medical school's surgery department and former trauma director at Palmetto Health Richland.

The bill sets up a fund that state officials hope to beef up with grant money and a regular source of funding such as a surcharge on traffic violations. It establishes a Trauma Advisory Council to oversee the system and come up with funding ideas.

"We've got to set the infrastructure in place for doing all this," said Phyllis Beasley, trauma center coordinator for DHEC.

Though the state's six most specialized trauma centers lost $18.3 million in 2001, the legislation provides no money to bail them out right away.

However, "we're certainly hoping there will be some funding to go along with the legislation," said Dr. E. Douglas Norcross, medical director for trauma services at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Co-sponsors of the bill are Sen. Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, and Rep. Denny Neilson, D-Darlington. Neilson received trauma care in 2001 after a serious accident on U.S. 15.

"It is important to all South Carolinians that this system become stronger, providing critical care to all of our citizens when their lives are at risk," Peeler said.

It's getting harder to find doctors willing to volunteer to be on-call for trauma center cases, Norcross said. "You're caring for a lot of people who won't be able to pay you anything, and often at odd hours ‘.‘.‘. it's a sacrifice."

Anyone in South Carolina is just a lane change away from landing in a trauma center. The state ranks third in the nation in deaths from traffic accidents.

Wimberly Briggs was in surgery within about an hour, which doctors say is a victim's best hope for survival. Her accident was in May 2002.

Wimberly, 17, continues to recuperate. On Friday, she will graduate from Richland Northeast High School.